A Lifetime of Saying Yes to God - Bill Johnson

What happens when two people independently say "yes" to God's call?

In this episode of Opening the Way, we sit down with veteran missionary Bill Johnson as he shares a lifetime of faith, adventure, and God's incredible faithfulness.

From a young man praying, "Lord, teach me what it means to be a missionary," to serving across Africa and now helping equip indigenous leaders in North America, Bill's story is filled with moments that remind us God is always at work.

One of the most beautiful parts of this conversation is hearing how God was preparing both Bill and Julie long before they ever met. Each with a heart for missions, their paths eventually crossed, and together they've spent the last 37 years faithfully serving wherever the Lord has led them.

Join us as we talk about hearing God's call, trusting Him through every season, finding your identity in Christ, and discovering the joy of serving Him wherever He leads.

🎧 Watch the full conversation now.

👇 We'd love to hear from you:
What part of Bill's journey encouraged you the most?

#OpeningTheWay #Missions #Faithfulness #ChristianPodcast #HarvestersMinistries #Jesus

Transcript

Jade 0:31

Hello and welcome back to the Opening the Way podcast. I'm so excited in studio today to have Bill Johnson working with Harvesters and also representing his wife Julie, who does the ministry with him, mainly working in the USA and in Canada with Native American people groups. And we're going to be discussing that a little bit today and just hear a bit about Bill's story, his background, and his life and journey with Jesus. So we're very excited for that this morning. And yeah, welcome, Bill. It's so good to have you in South Africa, all the way from the UN.

Bill 1:10

I'm amazed the times I've been here, how beautiful South Africa is and the Cape. It's uh it's an honor to be here. It's an honor to work with you and the other harvesters team.

Jade 1:20

Well, the honor is most certainly ours. And it's always just such a joy having you too. I'm sure if the mountains of Cape Town could speak, it would be saying all those lovely things about you every time you come visit us in South Africa. So and speaking of mountains, I want to start off the conversation with just a little bit of light-hearted icebreaker kind of you know questions. And my first one actually is whether or not you prefer the mountains or the beach.

Bill 1:52

Oh, I'm definitely a mountain person, and so is Julie. We love the mountains.

Jade 1:56

Oh, wonderful. You guys spend a lot of time hiking?

Bill 2:00

Well, we did. We lived in Colorado for five years, and um, but prior to that, every time we had the opportunity to go to Colorado, we would. And Colorado is the home, you know, of the Rocky Mountains.

Jade 2:10

Oh, yes, of course. That's where my pocket lives.

Bill 2:13

I love outdoors. Julie loves outdoors. Our kids do as well. The girls would prefer, my daughters would prefer the beach, but Julie and I always prefer the mountains.

Jade 2:23

Mountain for the wind. And uh speaking of mountains and beach, you know, there would be seasons and times when you would usually go to the beach or sometimes go to the mountain. What is your favorite season?

Bill 2:37

I love autumn.

Jade 2:39

Beautiful.

Bill 2:40

Yeah, I love the in our uh part of uh the United States, the trees, the the trees change colors and the you go from the hot summer and you start getting the cool nights and uh I love autumn.

Jade 2:54

And it's such a a beautiful time as well, you know, just seeing the color change of the leaves and everything gets these bright yellow and red hues everywhere you look. It's it's a it's a gorgeous, gorgeous season, gorgeous time and the cool of the day, you know, it's wonderful. I I think I'm I'm with you on that one. Now, coming to a little bit more of your palette and something you like, you know, would you be preferring vanilla flavor or chocolate flavor?

Bill 3:24

Oh, chocolate. The darker the better.

Jade 3:27

I don't think we've had one guest who chose vanilla. Uh so this is great. It it seems as though I need to convert to chocolate because clearly So you like vanilla. I I do, I do, but I think uh I'm gonna have to get my chocolate game on for sure. Favorite food? Oh my something Julie cooks?

Bill 3:51

Oh, let's see. Probably lasagna.

Jade 3:54

Ooh, what a winner. Yeah, and I can picture that now with everything that you've answered. You know, imagine it's a nice autumn day, and you've got a nice steamy plate of lasagna that you can just dig into. I'm making us hungry, right? Oh, yeah. So I need to move on. Favorite scripture. I know there's many. It's difficult. The Bible is filled with so much wisdom.

Bill 4:19

And I think um this will tie into how we um became acquainted with harvesters. This is my mission calling. It was Isaiah 49, one through six. That's too long to say here right now, but uh the last verse is um Isaiah 49, six says, It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. Behold, I will make you a light unto the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. That was my calling when I was a university student. Beautiful growing in Christ. And uh, of course, that's a promise about Jesus, but Paul also claimed that promise as his motivation to taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Of course, we were know the word nations means the ethno-linguistic people groups of the earth.

Jade 5:17

So oh, beautiful. Um, I'm excited to get into your story and your calling, uh um, and great to know a little bit of how that came to be and and how that scripture played a role. Tell me, is there a Bible character that you relate most to?

Bill 5:38

I think it would be uh probably Caleb. I love the story of Caleb. Uh, he was faithful throughout his life and faithful to the end. And when he was 85, he came back to Joshua and he said, Joshua, you know, because you know what Moses said. I am I am 85 years old today, and I'm I'm still as strong as I today as I was in the day Moses sent us when we were in our 40s, and for for war and for going out and coming in. And then he said, I want the hill country. I want the land, the giants where they were from. The very land that kept Israel, the giants that kept Israel from coming in. I want that place. And you know, that is the heart of uh Israel because that's where Abraham and Sarah are buried, and and Isaac and Leah are buried there. And it's it was it was that the that was the heart of the promised land. Beautiful. Caleb said, I want that.

Jade 6:34

I want that. Wow, that is amazing. Uh what a significant scripture, too, and just everything that ties to that one piece that he refers, you know, that piece of land he refers to as well. You can see why, um, for many reasons. And perhaps if you could have a completely different career path, perhaps no different career path. You you maybe you've been, you know, called to missions from the start. But is there something that you would be doing differently if you weren't doing what you're doing now?

Bill 7:13

I would probably be a farmer or a pilot or both.

Jade 7:16

Oh, great. The pilot farmer.

Bill 7:19

Yeah, the pilot farmer. That's right.

Jade 7:21

I could totally see that. Oh, that's great. And just before we get into everything, what words would you use to describe Jesus to you?

Bill 7:40

He is the vine and I'm a branch. And he lives within me. And I live and move and breathe because of him.

Jade 7:51

Beautiful. Well, speaking of living and breathing and moving because of him, how did you come to to meet Jesus? Tell us a little bit about your story.

Bill 8:04

Yeah. So um like many people, uh from a good Christian home, my family taught me about Jesus from the time I was little, as long as I could remember. And um I made steps toward Christ as a as a boy and as a teenager, but it wasn't until um I think I was at a point of desperation in my life at probably about age 17. And um I was driving home from my grandparents. They lived in in the country, we lived in the city. Okay, and uh I was driving home and I was thinking about my grandfather's life, who loved the Lord, and my grandmother and my aunt and uncle, and uh even my own parents, and I realized that I was on a trajectory to not finish my life the way they were gonna finish their life and their walk with God. I was on the uh a wrong trajectory. And I remember the place I was on the road driving myself, and it was almost dark and it was misting rain. And I remember this prayer, Lord, I know all about you. I've learned about you from the time I was a boy, but I don't know you. And I remember crying out, Oh God, I want to know you. No matter what it takes, I want to know you. And only God knows if that was the point of my rebirth, but that was the point where my life changed, something happened. And after that, going to church was no longer something I had to do, it was something I wanted to do. Beautiful. And reading the scripture was something that whereas before it was if I did, it was just because I had to. But now I was hungry for God's word. And I didn't know that I loved worship and singing, but after that I couldn't get enough of going to church to be with God's people to worship and sing.

Jade 10:01

Hallelujah.

Bill 10:02

And so that's my story. That's where my life changed.

Jade 10:05

Incredible. Um so beautiful just hearing about a glimpse of everything that happened in that moment and kind of capturing still today the the true emotion with which you say that and and what it meant um making that choice. Right. Um and for you know, your grandparents and and and and family who had gone before you and and made that choice for themselves too at some point, but uh setting a beautiful example of of what it looks like following through on that. And so would you say that shortly after those events, there was a specific moment where you felt the Lord calling you into ministry or working in the mission field?

Bill 10:55

Yeah, I I um I was still in high school at that time. I think it was my last year of high school. And uh so it would be grade 12 or what is that, form one for you?

Jade 11:07

Yeah, grade 12. Perfect matrix.

Bill 11:09

Grade 12. And so um I knew that I had grown up um around agriculture, farming, and I had grown up around aviation, and I already had a pilot license at that time, or shortly after that. I think it was the next year I got my pilot license. I was already flying because I grew up by the airport on a a grass strip, and I learned to fly off of a grass strip.

Jade 11:33

What that is so cool.

Bill 11:34

And in our in our culture, in our in at that time, we we had a a newspaper, you know, a daily newspaper that came out, and the paper boy would go get the newspapers and fold them and put rubber bands around, and then take them around the neighborhood on his bicycle and throw them on people's doorstep. And uh so I paid for my flying lessons, mowing grass and delivering newspapers. Aviation was a big part of my life and building. I I had learned to be a carpenter. I was learning to be a carpenter at that time, and we were building, uh doing renovations and remodels and additions and a few houses. And so I knew that somewhere along those three, aviation, construction. So I worked a year in uh construction as a carpenter after high school, and I went to school at night, and then I decided, no, I'm gonna, I wanna be in the Air Force. I'm gonna go and go to university and get my four-year degree and be in the Air Force. So I headed off to university the year after grade 12. I worked a year and then I went. And uh I majored in uh in construction management. It was uh in it was engineering, civil engineering, architecture, and business combined. And all the time thinking I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a builder and have a ranch or a farm someday, and I'm gonna have my own airplane. Oh or I'm gonna use that as an avenue to get into the airlines and be an airline pilot. Because I grew up by the airport, several of my friends had gone into aviation as a career. And um, but that's that was my journey. And when I was when I went to I went to the University of Oklahoma, which whose colors I'm wearing today, by the way.

Jade 13:19

Oh, there we go. And uh proud representatives.

Bill 13:22

Right, right. And so when I was there, um, when I started, uh, some friends invited me to a student ministry. Uh it was at that time called the University of Oklahoma Baptist Student Union. Now it's called Christian Challenge or Baptist Collegiate Ministries. And um, I had just really, I was growing so much in my Christian walk. And I went to this university program, and oh man, it was like it was they were the things they were teaching about Jesus, and I'd really never heard about discipleship. And so it was through that, those friends inviting me that I was introduced to um to to being disciples and how to be a disciple maker, and how to spend time daily in God's word, how I have a quiet time with the Lord, and how to memorize verses, how to share my faith. And and uh so that the next five years, I took four years of university there, and then I worked a year afterwards and stayed there. It was uh I was like a sponge, soaking up anything that I could to know how to walk with the Lord. And we would um our uh student ministry director would bring in people like Elizabeth Elliott and uh and others like that. He would bring them in for a citywide conference and then give us extra time as students to sit around a meal and and talk with them and learn from them. While I was at the University of Oklahoma, and that was a long time ago, 1982 to 1986, Julie was at Baylor University uh uh in Texas uh studying nursing. And she was there the same years, and God was working in her life about missions and about reaching the nations, and she was growing in her faith. We didn't know each other, but later on, as we did find each other, as the Lord brought us together, we discovered we knew a lot of the same people incredibly the same circles. But um, while I was at OU, uh University of Oklahoma, growing in that student ministry and hearing from all of these wonderful missionaries and Bible teachers, and even, you know, even Elizabeth Elliott, you know, and face to face, and um God began stirring in my heart that uh oh, and our student director took us to East LA, a really rough part of LA after my first year at university, and he we did a mission outreach there. And on the way back, he challenged me. We were riding in a bus from California to Oklahoma, which is about a two-day trip.

Jade 15:59

Oh, goodness.

Bill 16:00

He he he challenged me on that bus to live for something greater than what I had planned. That God had something for me that um and that I didn't, I couldn't, I didn't know, but I needed to surrender to. So when we were in East LA on that mission outreach, after my first year, we called it our freshman year's your first year. And that we were there as a group of students ministering in East LA to the university campuses and to homeless people. Tom Wolf was the pastor of Church on Brady, which became Mosaic Church. And he challenged us on the bus. He at that time he was Tom was a tremendous advocate for God is moving the nations to the cities. And if you want to make a difference in the world, you better go to the cities.

Jade 16:47

Wonderful.

Bill 16:48

And so he was going down the aisle of the bus where we were going out on some outreach there from his church to um uh somewhere in East LA. And I stopped him and I said, Brother Tom, what if you don't like cities? Because remember, I'm the bush boy. I'm the I want to hunt and fish and I want to be in the mountains and I want to fly airplanes. Yes. He looked at me and he said, Tough. Jesus didn't like nails.

Jade 17:15

What a great onset.

Bill 17:16

Oh my goodness. Well, it pierced my heart. You know, it crushed me.

Jade 17:19

Of course.

Bill 17:20

And uh so it was on the way home from that trip that our Max Barnett, our BSU, our Baptist Student Union student director, he he challenged me, he said, Bill, God may have more for you to do in life than be a pilot or build houses or um have a ranch or a farm. He may have more for you to do. And uh I went home that summer with that thought and I began praying, Lord, um I don't know why, you know how the the word of God says the Holy Spirit praise intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Yes. He stirred this prayer in my heart that I know had to be from him. It was, Lord, would you send somebody to teach me what it means to be a missionary? And so um I went home and uh for summer break, summer vacation, and I met a family that first night I was home, I went to my church in my hometown, which was two and a half hours from university. I was to be there for the summer. Our church introduced a family from Tanzania that were a mission family that from Tanzania. And I spent the summer with them in my hometown learning about missions. God answered that prayer.

Jade 18:34

Wonderful.

Bill 18:35

And the next summer they said, why don't you come over and spend the summer in Tanzania with us?

Jade 18:38

Yes.

Bill 18:39

So I I'd never really gone anywhere, you know, I'd never made a big trip. So my church helped me go and others helped me go, and I went by myself to Tanzania, and we I served with uh his name is Raleigh Ennis, and Raleigh was an agricultural missionary in the bush of Tanzania.

Jade 18:56

Wow.

Bill 18:57

And while I was there, it was in the Far Eastern, it was a place called Casulu. I loved I fell in love with Africa. I fell in love with the people of Africa. Um we would do our agriculture work through the week, and then on Saturday, Raleigh would go out and he would go out to some little bush church in the you know in the village with a maybe a tin roof, maybe a thatch roof, mud mud brick walls, and the pastors would be coming from coming in and he would teach them. He would do um excuse me, he would teach theological education by extension. And um so that impressed me while I was there as a university student just for summer break. I made a commitment to the Lord and I pray. I said, Lord, please I want to give my life to training pastors in Africa. So sorry. Anyway, um I made that prayer before I left Casulu, and that that shaped my life that time, and of course, all of that's God working in our hearts and He's shaping us for what He created us for to do and to be.

Jade 21:12

Um, we we often come to prayer and we we make a lot of statements in prayer, Lord, do this and do that, and while you're at it, how about this and maybe a little bit of that? But how often is it that we just ask God to answer to something that we don't yet know the answer for? Or making ourselves again just dependent on the power of his hand and the work of his spirit in our lives instead of coming with the answers or coming with the requests. And I believe it's exactly that question saying Lord, please send me someone who can teach me, um, who can show me and in that. Time when you were busy being trained and found the passion that you would eventually want to be the one who helps to train others too. Is that when you met Julie?

Bill 22:13

Yeah, I go back to your question. So I graduated university. I had God spoke to me, I think it was even maybe the previous summer when I had met Raleigh in Tulsa, where I grew up, and the agricultural missionary before I went to Tanzania the summer before. The Lord spoke to me one morning in my quiet time, and I was home from university, and uh and the Lord spoke to me Isaiah 49, 1 through 6. And he gave me, I he spoke to me that says, I've created you, I want you to go take the gospel to the nations. And by this time, he had prepared my heart to receive that that calling. And uh so I said yes to him. And then the next year is when I spent the summer in Tanzania and it just all confirmed that. And all of that experience confirmed that calling. So I graduated from university. Uh, I worked a year as a draftsman and a carpenter. And uh while I stayed in that student ministry for more training and more discipleship, then I went to Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. Well, Julie had had similar experiences. She could have gone, she graduated in nursing, worked as a nurse a year, and then she had this calling to say, I need to go to seminary. So instead of going to the Big Baptist Seminary, which was just a few miles from where she was working in Texas, she also went to Golden Gate.

Jade 23:43

What are the children?

Bill 23:44

My roommate came to get me. School hadn't even started yet. This was 1987, you know, a long time ago. And we'd both graduated from university in 86. We'd both worked a year. My roommate, who's still a good friend today, came to get me and said, Girl, there's this girl moving in the dormitory. Will you come and help us unload her car? And I went over to help her unload her car. And excuse me, every time I'd carry a box in, I'd ask her a question. Well, what are you, where are you from? I'd go get a box. So uh, what'd you study in school? And what do you what do you want to do someday? And I I left that few minutes and I I didn't tell anybody this. And I went back to my dorm room and I got on my knees and I said, God, this is the girl I've been praying for. Hallelujah. Amen. That's right. 1987, 36, 30. What is that? Yeah, almost uh 40 years ago.

Jade 24:40

40 years ago.

Bill 24:41

But I couldn't tell her that because I would have she would have ran the other way.

Jade 24:46

But thank goodness for all the boxes came the box.

Bill 24:52

And so, yeah, and so uh anyway, so she didn't know it yet.

Jade 24:56

She didn't know it.

Bill 24:57

And so we we we were friends that whole year at school, uh, that whole semester, that entire semester. And she comes back at Christmas. Remember, this is this is August. She comes back at Christmas and she says, and we we didn't date or anything, we were just friends and did stuff in groups and just you know, just had a good time together on campus with other uh some of our classmates and just had fun. And uh had a few classes together, and uh we she comes back at Christmas and she says, I'm not coming back to school next year. I'm going to go to Zimbabwe as a nurse.

Jade 25:30

Oh, wow.

Bill 25:31

And uh on a two-year assignment, she says, I feel like I'm supposed to be a missionary nurse and I I just need to go and learn what that's like. So um I thought, oh, I better get busy. So uh I I told her shortly after that, I I asked her, I said, would you could you and I have a special friendship? And so we we we began not seriously dating, but just really getting to know each other in uh that second semester of seminary. And then she off she went to Zimbabwe the next year, and I stayed and finished my my seminary degree. And for you young people, keep in mind there was no WhatsApp, there was no cell phones. Fax machines had just become affordable enough. If you had a good phone service, you could have a fax in your home. And she went to Senati Baptist Hospital in Senati, Zimbabwe as a nurse. I stayed in San Francisco, um, and uh um finishing my MDiv, and I worked as a carpenter building cabinets, and I also was uh served at a little church, and so I was really busy. And uh so we wrote letters back and forth, no emails, no texts. We wrote letters back and forth. And I suppose the waiting time on these Oh, sometimes it would be two weeks, sometimes ten days, you know, usually at least ten days. Yeah, and so we would write a letter or two a week, and uh I would skip the whole letter to see the last three words. I love you. Oh I couldn't wait to check my mailbox every day at seminary. Did I get a letter today, you know? Yes, and uh she would get mail from Kadoma, which was the nearest town to them. They would bring the mail back in, and you know, so we we we we dated by mail.

Jade 27:22

I love that. Pen pals, very special pen pals.

Bill 27:26

Well, so I had uh so um the last few I had one semester of seminary left, which is um which is um six three about six months left, and Julie had about six months left of her assignment. So I went to Zimbabwe, saved my money, building cabinets, working in the church, and I went on a I arranged it with my missions professor to do a a um a study, an independent mission study. So I worked with the missionaries at at the hospital there and out in the bush, and and uh on Christmas morning in 1989, I asked Julie to marry me at Seniati.

Jade 28:04

So and so you guys got engaged right there where she had been on her, you know, um um assignment. That is so beautiful. And did she was she expecting you? Did she know that you would be coming?

Bill 28:20

Sort of, I mean, kind of. She knew I was coming, of course, but she didn't know that I was gonna ask her to marry me.

Jade 28:28

Wonderful.

Bill 28:29

And so we were engaged on Christmas morning at Sanyati Baptist Hospital.

Jade 28:33

Praise God.

Bill 28:34

So um and it's been yeah, how that was nice that was uh December of 1989, so what, 30, 37 years ago? Yeah, this will be our 36th wedding anniversary coming up. We got married when she finished, and I finished seminary. We've we got married in September of 1990. And it's we've been on a journey, and like any journey, there's ups and downs. There's when you walk with the Lord, he gives you enough light to see the the next step, or you get to that curve and he shows you where the next turn is to be. But that's our journey. We ended up um I after that we went and moved back to Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is, because we'd been apart and we thought we need to go back and just be married a year before I took a church to pastor, or before we tried to go back overseas. So uh we lived in Norman a year. Julie worked as a nurse, and I worked for an insurance company, doing working on houses and buildings, which was my degree. I I would go in and evaluate damage or whatever and write estimates. And then uh I pastored a little church in Oklahoma for a few years.

Jade 29:43

Uh-huh.

Bill 29:44

And then we went to Mali, West Africa.

Jade 29:47

And so when you guys together went to Mali, which I'm sure in its own um story must be such a significant one, too, of just how the Lord spoke to both of you about going there. At what point did you get involved with harvester's ministries?

Bill 30:10

Okay. You go back to Tanzania, you know. We went to Mali in 1994, and I was in Tanzania in 1985. So it'd been nine years since I sat on the hillside at at uh uh at Casulu and asked the Lord, oh Lord, I want to be a part of training pastors in Africa. Of anything else you let me do. If you get to let if I get to fly airplanes in the bush, great. If I get to farm in the bush or build, fine. But no matter what I do, it's not me that's going to reach the indigenous peoples. It's those that you give me the privilege and the honor of encouraging and training and equipping and coming along beside. Because when the missionary's gone, they're the ones the work has to rest on their shoulders in their labors. So we were in Mali, uh '94. We were in Mali 1994 to about 99. And uh our mission was shorthanded in Côte d'Ivoire. So we volunteered to go to Côte d'Ivoire to fill in for a few, for we thought we'd be a few months. It ended up being a couple of years. Wow. Côte d'Ivoire had a coup d'etat, and we were still engaged with unreached peoples in Mali. And so we said after a few months of the war, we had two little girls by this time.

Jade 31:29

Wow.

Bill 31:30

I tell you this: all of our children God gave to us while we were in Mali. We'd opened work with an unreached people group called the Kagoro people, uh little tribe of 35,000, no Bible in their language, no known believers, and never had had a missionary ever work among them. And uh so we had that work going as well. And so we said, let's go back. We had a volunteer team coming from the states to help us um open work there. And so we went back to Bamako, which means uh Crocodile River, by the way. Oh and so, which is the Niger, which is the Niger River. And so we met the team uh and we went out in the bush uh to our villages and we worked among the Kagoro that week and we saw God working and moving. And uh we had to make the decision were we're gonna go try to go back to Côte d'Ivoire, because we still had a house there and work there, and nobody to take my place there, or do we stay here? And about the time we were trying to go back to Côte d'Ivoire, a few months after that time out of this coup d'etat, out of the war, yes, uh, we decided to go back to Côte d'Ivoire to pick up our work there. And they had a very bad uprising, and they were they were targeting French people, which they wouldn't know that we weren't French. Yes, and so we said, we don't think we should go back, and there's plenty of work here, and we speak the indigenous language anyway, and so let's stay and continue our work with the Kaguro. And so that's what we did. We stayed in in Mali for a few more years, and uh we were there in Côte d'Ivoire, Molly and Côte d'Ivoire for a total of 11 years, 1994 to 2000.

Jade 33:10

That's a lot of time.

Bill 33:12

We came back, 2005. Julie's mom passed away. I'll try to abbreviate the rest of the story to get back to Harvesters. We came back, I took the role as a missions pastor in Midland, Texas, and I did that role for over 10 years. But all of this I I wept every day for two years because I wasn't a missionary in the bush of Africa anymore. And that goes back to I had to learn that my identity was not in being a missionary. My identity was that Christ lives within me and I belong to him. My identity is in Christ. Yes, and we make a difference wherever he plants us. Where we needed to be back. Julie's dad had a had leukemia, so mom and past, we needed to be close to family. My parents are getting older. And for you younger people wanting to be missionaries, remember this. No one tells you when you go that it's it's it may not be a lifetime, it may be a window in your life, uh, an opportunity. Take that time and make the most of it. Learn the language, love the people. Above all, love the Lord Jesus and his word, um, and and make disciples. Whoever you, wherever you go, no matter what your work is, find a few that you can train and invest in and encourage. Yes, and that will go on and also make disciples. So at first Baptist Midland, as a missions pastor, we changed our strategy such that we would no longer do a mission trip here and one there and do this and do that. We would focus on those organizations at the spear point, of the tip of the spear, were all about training indigenous leaders. And that's when I met Stephen in Midland, and immediately I knew it goes back to that hillside in Kasulu many years earlier, where the Lord said, This man is training pastors in Africa. Connect to him, see how you can serve him in his ministry. So that was the start of this journey with harvesters, and I think that was 2012, 2013. So we started, uh I started trying to do whatever I could to help Stephen and Harvesters. And then in 2017, Stephen asked me to come on the board for harvesters as one of the board members, January of 2017. Yeah. So it'll be 10 years that I've served on the board. And then in 2021, I asked Stephen, could I just come on staff? Julie and I said, Could we come on staff with harvesters? And so we came on staff with harvesters and uh as harvesters' um representatives in the USA and Canada. And now by this time, my dad was 96 and my mom was 91, and I had a disabled sister. Julie's parents were gone on to heaven. We had college-age kids, we couldn't travel and move back to overseas. So Stephen gave us the challenge. See how God could use harvesters in the USA and Canada.

Jade 36:21

Wonderful.

Bill 36:21

So we started down the road of looking to see how I could use that with Native Americans and immigrants coming in. And so uh that's the journey we're on today. And um I if I could, I would move back to Africa and be a Bush missionary and have a have a bush plane and a bush house and go around training pastors in the bush.

Jade 36:41

I have no doubt in that. No doubt.

Bill 36:44

And probably do a little agriculture work on the side, you know. But um God's given us that privilege of really multiplying our calling and our vision through harvesters to train indigenous leaders. And um, and so we started down the who are the indigenous peoples of North America. Yes. Well, it's our Native Americans, and first in Canada, they call themselves First Nations.

Jade 37:11

Okay.

Bill 37:12

We've been called by many names, and by the way, I am Native American. My grandmother was 100%, 100% Cherokee.

Jade 37:20

That is incredible.

Bill 37:21

Yeah, and she was a godly Christian lady, and so I had this, I grew up with this Native American heritage, but I didn't recognize it. And um that's where we started this journey. But I'll tell one last story, then I know we have to wrap up.

Jade 37:38

Yeah.

Bill 37:39

So remember my calling? I will make you a light unto the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. I could always think of, well, that's an easy translation to think of the unreached peoples in of Africa or India or Asia, uh, those who haven't heard the indigenous peoples. And Julie and I were invited to a Native American gathering of Christians, and it's the largest gathering in the world of Native American Christians. It happens in Oklahoma, where I'm from, which means home of the red man, whole nother history there, a whole nother day, whole nother story. And I walked into this gathering of around 2,000 Native American Christians, and I looked, and some of them were in their regalia, their, you know, their their traditional dress, and they all were beautiful olive skin, dark skin, brown eyes, and and uh I looked and I could see my grandmother and all of them. And the Lord said to me, These are the nations also that I spoke of when I gave Isaiah those words. 800 years before Christ, I was thinking of these people as well, the indigenous people here, the nations here. And so that's how we began our Native American journey with harvesters.

Jade 39:04

So beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I wish we had more time to go into depth about all of that. But if there's something that you would just still want to say today before we wrap up the conversation, it doesn't need to be advice or anything, but uh something that you just still want to capture within this conversation today. Uh what would that be?

Bill 39:31

I would say that as best we know uh from census data and other statistics, there's only five and a half million Native Americans remaining in the United States, including Alaska. There are about two and a half million in Canada, so eight million, around eight million that we know of. There could be more or less, but from census data we think that. But we don't know the exact statistics of how many are have embraced and are born again, but the number is always used of about five percent. But I do know this that there's a tremendous need to raise up indigenous Native Americans and First Nations pastors and Christian leaders. And that's what we're hoping we see God use. How he use that's how we're praying and hoping and working that we might see harvesters use to raise up indigenous pastors and leaders among the Native American First Nations people of the United States, uh, including Alaska and also Canada. And I would close with this that we've had a lot of ups and downs in ministry after been in ministry golly, probably close to uh 40 years now, you know, and a lot of mistakes, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of failures and sorrows and challenges and and a lot of joys. But um I I would not trade this journey for anything else in life. And I think of the verse that is also a favorite verse and he died for all, that we who live should no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died and rose again on our behalf.

Jade 41:23

Thank you. What an absolute honor and a privilege speaking with you today, Bill. And we're excited in future, surely, to perhaps have you back in studio with Julie. Uh, we pray for the both of you, for your families and and for the work that you do, the very important work that you do, um, and the people with whom you do it. And we're trusting the Lord for great harvest and some wonderful, wonderful testimonies of how He still continues to train those who need to be trained. That call that you had as a young man, that that mission will continue. And um, for those of you watching or listening today, if you in any way would want to get involved or know a little bit more about the work that we do, we're gonna leave some information in the description below. And we would like to encourage you if this conversation really made an impact on you today, please like, subscribe, and join us for future conversations and more information about Harvester's ministries in our page descriptions below. It's been great having you. And just remember, God is still opening the way. Thank you for joining us on opening the way. If this conversation meant something to you today, please take a moment to like and subscribe the channel on whichever platform you're listening from. So you never miss a conversation, whether it be from the field or with various professionals. And if you'd like to learn more about harvesters, the work we're doing, or even the guests that we had on today, check out the links in the description below and visit our website. Until next time, trust that the Lord is opening the way.